A media outlet affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) has openly called for the mass execution of perceived enemies of the state, invoking the precedent of mass killings carried out in 1988 following a decree by then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini.
In an article published this week, the semi-official Fars News Agency described current detainees accused of collaborating with Israel and Western intelligence agencies as “deserving of execution in the style of 1988.”
“In the current conditions, when some mercenary elements—Iranians and foreign nationals—have enabled the killing of hundreds of Iranian citizens, including women, children and civilians, by transferring intelligence to the Zionist enemy and smuggling weapons into the country, they deserve to be executed in the manner of 1988," the article said.
The publication argued that the 1988 executions were a “brilliant chapter” in the Islamic Republic’s fight against terrorism and said that “society today recognizes the need for such proper measures against domestic terrorist networks.”
Between July and September 1988, thousands of political prisoners were summarily executed across Iran after a fatwa by Ayatollah Khomeini.
Amnesty International estimates the death toll at a minimum of 5,000. Victims, many of whom had already been serving sentences for political dissent, were subjected to secret trials and then executed. Their bodies were buried in unmarked graves, and families were never officially notified.
“The anguish caused to families by this ongoing crime constitutes torture,” Amnesty said in a 2023 report, adding that “the extrajudicial executions and the ongoing enforced disappearances amount to crimes against humanity.”
The Iranian authorities have never acknowledged the full scope of the killings. Families of the victims have been subjected to intimidation, denial of burial rights, and the destruction of mass grave sites. Amnesty International and other human rights groups continue to call for accountability.
In 2016, an audio recording surfaced in which Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, once heir apparent to Khomeini, condemned the executions in a meeting with judiciary officials involved in the process. “I believe the greatest crime in the history of the Islamic Republic, for which history will condemn us, has been committed by you,” he said. “Your names will go down in history as criminals.”
Montazeri was subsequently dismissed from power and placed under house arrest until his death in 2009.
Calls for renewed repression
In its editorial, Fars revisited the history of the 1980s and described dissident organizations such as the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) as armed insurgents who “attempted to hijack the revolution from within.”
The article said the MEK collaborated with Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war and “committed atrocities against civilians,” framing the 1988 executions as both justifiable and necessary for national security.
“Unlike the false portrayal by opposition media that the 1988 executions were against human rights, today the public sees the necessity of repeating such decisive actions,” Fars wrote, also defending the role of late President Ebrahim Raisi, who was one of the judiciary officials implicated in the process.
Iran is intensifying a nationwide crackdown in the wake of its 12-day war with Israel, targeting ethnic and religious minority groups as well as foreign nationals.
Late in June, Fars reported that Iranian intelligence forces arrested more than 700 Iranians accused of acting as agents for Israel.
No Iranian official has yet responded to or repudiated Fars’ latest statements. Iranian authorities typically avoid direct acknowledgment of the 1988 killings in public discourse, though some judiciary and government figures have repeatedly defended them as lawful.
Iran’s parliament passed an emergency bill late last month to increase penalties for espionage and collaboration with “hostile states,” allowing suspects to be tried under wartime conditions.
Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei said those arrested in the context of Israel’s recent attacks would be prosecuted under “wartime legal provisions.”
Judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said on state TV that current espionage laws are “too general” and inadequate for addressing recent cases, adding that legal reforms are needed to handle detainees linked to the conflict with Israel.
